Down on Its Luck, High School Gets Mezuzah Check from Chabad

January 25, 1995

The principal of a Jerusalem high school that is mourning the deaths of former students ejected six members of the Chabad movement who reportedly were checking mezuzot in the building to see whether the school’s luck could be changed.

Six graduates from Rene Kassen High School were killed during their army service this year, the most recent loss sustained in the terrorist attack at Beit Lid Junction near Netanya on Sunday.

Students this week spotted Chabad members checking mezuzot in the building to see whether they were kosher. The students alerted the principal, Yehezkiel Gabai, who asked the Chabad members to leave.

Gabai told the Israeli daily Ha’aretz that he received phone calls this week from people suggesting that changing the school’s name might change its luck.

Gabai criticized leaders in the fervently Orthodos Agudat Yisrael Party, who this week said the soldiers killed in the terror attack at Beit Lid Junction had died because they had broken the Sabbath.

“It is inconceivable that in the 20th century, someone would think that one of these flowers who contributed to the state, died because of violation of the Sabbath or because the mezuzot are not good,” Gabai said.

A Chabad spokesman said he was unaware of the incident at the school. But, he added, it is worthwhile for a school to make sure that its mezuzot are kosher.